Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Its snowed and now my girl wont go outside, she is hiding in my laundry room and doing her business...Im fine with this if she would use the potty pads but she hates them..If I put her on one she acts like shes miserable and tucks her tail.Any suggestions?

>>If I put her on one she acts like shes miserable and tucks her tail. Any suggestions?

Yes. My old girl LaVie used potty pads for the last couple years of her life, she learned to use them at 14 yrs old.

Two thoughts/ideas for you.

First Idea:
Based on your description of her body language she has a bad association with the pads. Let her learn that they are a "good," or at least neutral. Put the potty pad where she ends up walking over it accidentally. When she does touch it reward her. The bad association can come without you being "mean" to her, simply being not as nice as you are at other times she can think it's a bad because she always gets "lectured" when on it. (Just like a kid that thinks they are always scolded when they go to the principles office - even when it's to tell them good job.)

After she no longer thinks the pee pad means a negative but a neutral, put it where she is always going pee. Do like potty training, after she eats let her have a nap in her crate and after about 20 minutes take her to go pee at the pad. If she doesn't need to go then give her a pet and back to the crate for a bit. After another 20 min or so try again. (This only works if she needs to go pee.) Keep doing the timed intervals with everything being happy and positive. Then when she goes pee tell her how good she is.

I did this a few times with my old girl and then she was doing it on her own. Be sure to use the "scented" pee pads to let her learn. Once LaVie had it down I was able to buy some of the cloth with waterproof backing like used in the hospitals on wheel chairs and beds, these are machine washable.

Also, in LaVie's case she did not like to use a pad more then twice. After that she would go sowewhere else.

Second Idea:
Here's another idea of where, set up a space that is really small with the pee pad on one end and the crate in another. Like the attached picture of LaVie's former "palace." After LaVie lost almost all her sight and hearing we set this up for her. It calmed her down very well to be in a safe space where no body could "sneak" up on her and she had her heating pad, her crate, the pee pad, and a bit of food and water.

LaVie was already trained to the pads, we just moved to the HUGE (Great Dane sized crate) when her age had caused her sight and hearing to degrade so badly that she was starting to have anxiety fears. Before that she had the run of the bedroom and master bathroom. While we did the "palace" to reduce the size of the area so she was comfortable it seems like it would also work to help with pad training.

LaVie

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tabitha
Kayo, Kahla, and Dante'

aww LaVie was a special girl that you did so much to help her in her elder yrs - she deserved it. wish everyone would be so considerate.

with the potty-training - it is largely a matter of setting up a system as described, making an extra effort for the first few days/weeks?

and hoping for an (almost) accidental 'hit' so you can praise.

depending on your set-up area, you could go the old school method & use newspapers. putting down the entire area except for the bed/food corner & then pup will have to suceed & the idea is that they will try to eliminate furtherist away from their bed, so you will be gradually moving the newspaper (could add potty pads at this point) to that far corner.

some will try to scoop a snow free area & put down some thick straw, they make heavy coats & boots too, so maybe this will give you an idea - its a common problem.

My problem is she has free run of the house and I could never pen her now...I would rather clean the messes in the laundry room then do that..The good part is the laundry room has a concrete floor under some very old and thin carpet so she cant do that much damage, it would just be easier to clean if I had newspaper or potty pads..And she only does it on very cold or rainy days otherwise she uses the doggy door or I let them out to go potty..

I had the same problem and being in Canada - well we all know how cold it is up here. I got my little girl some really warm sweaters but that wasn't enough. When there is snow on the ground we have to put booties on her. We got the kind that are velcro so they would stay on her skinny legs (she's only about 4.5 lbs). Make sure to use praise as much as possible and get to know her schedule. Mine has to go out 1st thing in the morning and after every meal.